A bicycle industry association whose mission is to encourage more people to ride their bikes awarded $30,000 this fall to bike trails in Massachusetts, West Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska and Missouri.
The grants from the Bikes Belong Coalition will help make repairs and improvements to bike trails in some cases, while helping to get others “shovel ready.”
A prime example is the $10,000 awarded for repairs in Morgantown, West Virginia, to the Decker Creek Trail, part of a 48-mile network of trails. The grant to the Monongahela River Trails Conservancy enables repairs to the trail surface as well as drainage improvements and streambank stabilization to protect the rail-trail.
Grainger, South Carolina, is getting $2,250 from Bikes Belong toward the city's efforts to install bicycle-friendly drainage grates on streets and improve a road crossing for a trail that connects recreation facilities with neighborhoods.
A $5,000 grant in Massachusetts will help get a trail connection between Northampton and Hatfield off the drawing boards and into reality. Northampton is the northern terminus of the Farmington Canal Trail that will one day head 84 miles south to New Haven, Connecticut.
Activate Omaha is the beneficiary of a $7,750 Bikes Belong grant that will help fund a connector trail that links the Hillsborough neighborhood to Omaha's growing metropolitan bike trail system.
A partnership to build mountain biking trails in the Mark Twain National Forest will receive a $5,000 grant. The 21-mile trail network was inspired by mountain bike enthusiasts in the Poplar Bluff, Missouri, area who brought together the US Forest Service, a local bike shop and cycling club, and city and county governments. Here's a map of the proposed trail.
More about Bikes Belong Coalition and its grants program.
Photo above from Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail in Sacramento
Recent Comments